Somebody Loved
by nikiness
Summary: "Not just no, girl. Hell no. I ain't doin' it and all the poutin' your pretty little face can do ain't gonna make me do it."


**Title:** Somebody Loved  
**Author:** Niki  
**Rating:** PG  
**Character(s):** River/Jayne  
**Prompt:** 079. Lover  
**Word Count:** 1058  
**Summary:** "Not just no, girl. _Hell_ no. I ain't doin' it and all the poutin' your pretty little face can do ain't gonna make me do it."

***  
"Oh no," Jayne muttered, backing himself into the corner of the room. He held his hands up in supplication, his eyes wide. "Not just no, girl. _Hell_ no. I ain't doin' it and all the poutin' your pretty little face can do ain't gonna make me do it."

River's eyes welled up and she angrily fisted the tears off of her cheeks. "Fine," she hissed, scowling. "Fine, you _zhu tou chun zi_. Don't!"

Jayne edged towards the ladder, never taking his eyes off the girl curled into a miserable ball on his bunk. If'n Jayne Cobb knew one thing about women, it was that he needed to get out. He needed to get out now. And he needed to _stay_ out.

River's big brown eyes were still shining with tears and she'd started sniffling, her cheeks flushed with anger and embarrassment. Jayne cursed silently, to himself. If she started full on cryin'... well, he was done for. He was a goner.

The girl's bottom lip was poking out something fierce. "Why don't you love her?" she asked in a tiny little voice. He could tell she was barely holding back a flood of tears and it made him feel all kinds of guilty. It twisted up his gut and he didn't like the feeling. Not one bit.

"Don't go sayin' things you know ain't true," he admonished. He tried to tell himself that this was just a ploy. One of the girl's tricks to guilt him into doin' her bidding. Nope, he weren't gonna fall for it. Not for a second. Except that now she was letting those fat, crocodile tears slip down her cheeks and roll off her chin. Oh, but this weren't gonna end well.

"You do not," she insisted, still using that same, tiny voice. "You do not love me. You think I am a burden."

Aw, hell. Somehow, he'd lost all control of this situation. Just half an hour ago, they'd been cuddling up for a nap in his bunk and next thing he knew, she'd been asking him to do... _that_. And things just kept going downhill from there.

"You know I don't think you're no burden, baby doll," he told her, trying to sound stern. Trying to salvage some control over the situation. But even he could see that it was an act of futility.

"Then why won't you do this for her?" River pouted. "Do you want her to be miserable?"

Jayne shifted uncomfortably, when the girl put it that way... "Aww, darlin'," Jayne wheedled. "Can't'cha do it yerself?"

River shot him a pointed look. "'Course not," he amended dejectedly. "That'd be too easy. Can't ya ask 'Nara or Kaylee? Hell, even Zoe? They'd be better at it."

River sighed and turned those big, wet eyes at him again. "Kaylee is having sex with Simon in the engine room. Inara is away, with a client and Zoe is sleeping. Plus, we are leaving planet tomorrow morning. It will be too early to go then."

Jayne grimaced at the thought of Kaylee and the doc ruttin'. "You ever get tired of knowin' everything?"

"Yes."

"Right..., so can't it wait 'til Kaylee... finishes?" Jayne whined, shuffling his feet awkwardly. He'd do anything to talk his way out of this one. The thought of doin' it filled him up with dread and he weren't an easy man to intimidate.

"You hate me," the girl cried out and then she turned, and in an exaggerated flop, she buried her face into his pillow, snuffling and crying.

"River..." he tried, tentatively. He was still holding onto the vain hope that he'd be able to talk some sense into the girl. His only response was a loud, choked sob and her shoulders shaking.

"Fine!"Jayne exclaimed, "I'll do it! I'll... do it. Just... stop yer cryin'."

The girl lifted her tear streaked face and offered him a faltering smile. Her big eyes lit up, "You would do that for the girl? You will go?"

Jayne sighed and ran one big palm down his face. _Ai ya_, but he was going to regret this. "Yeah, girl," he grumbled. "I'm gonna do it."

And to prove it, he slumped down on his bunk next to her and jammed his feet into his unlaced boots. He growled loudly as he hastily laced them up, muttering under his breath about _feng le_ girls and it being two in the gorram morning. River just smiled, clinging to his arm.

"You love me," she exclaimed, matter-of-fact, as though there had been some question over whether he did in fact love her or not and she'd just been proved right.

"Yeah, girl," Jayne grumbled, under his breath. "I love ya. Gorram, but I love ya."

He tried to remind himself of that when he stood, disheveled and scowlin' in the feminine hygiene aisle of the local general store. He was sure that he was a sight to behold; a big, hulkin' mercenary, strapped to the teeth with guns, glarin' daggers at a box of sanitary napkins.

"Gorram, but why do there need to be so many?" he grumbled. There were boxes that said that they came with wings. Some of didn't. Long, short, light and heavy. Some of the boxes were pink and some of the boxes were blue and he didn't know if that meant that some of 'em were for boys and some of 'em were for girls or if'n it meant you could choose the color you wanted 'em to be. Some of 'em you stuck up inside of ya and some of 'em you stuck in yer underwear and he couldn't make heads or tales of any of it.

With a deep sigh, Jayne started gatherin' up boxes. Better to give the girl some choices than come back with the wrong box and have to face another cryin' fit. He stomped over to the counter where the overnight clerk, a kid in his twenties with stringy hair and a greasy nose, was watching him with a smirk on his face.

Jayne dumped the packages on the counter and whipped Betty out of her holster at his thigh. He pointed it at the kid and noisily released the safety. "You ring those up, boy, and you don't say a word, ya got me?"


End file.
